I was recently working on replacing a short piece of fuel line going to the fuel rail and accidentally broke the rotating part at the top of the heater control valve. What's kind of weird to me is that after doing this, it doesn't seem to have made any difference at all in the control of heat or cold air within the vehicle.
I thought the heater control valve was designed to assist in making adjustments to the amount of heat going into the cabin? but yet, having this basically removed from the equation hasn't appeared to have any impact at all.

Do i need to worry about replacing it? Is it causing any harm not having it working? any future impact at all?
Thanks
B

 

The handle is typically held onto the bronze colored/threaded portion of the valve body as shown in the photo by a screw, make sure the screw did not come out.

If the car has a manual heater control rotating ****, the **** directly controlled the valve open/closed position which controlled the amount of hot coolant going to the heater core which controlled the amount of heat available to the cabin air.

Check the hot/cold orientation of the heater control **** to estimate the degree the valve was opened when the handle came off.

As to the broken valve having an impact. Hot coolant to the heater core may be fully on/off or someplace in the middle and thus heater output will reflect this. The climate system air intake has a hot/cold air blend door. This door will adjusts to blend hot heater core air with cold A/C or outside air to achieve a certain temp range. Given the outside air temps the system may still be able to adjust the hot/cold air blend to something you like despite the current position of the heater valve (and heater output)

However if the outside air temp becomes too cold or hot depending on the last position of the heater valve the blend door adjustment may not be able to overcome the heaters output or lack off.

As to harm or impact. Outside of temps in the car being too hot or cold there are no ill effects.

If you have a wrench you can rotate the valve stem where the handle attached manually to open/close it and achieve a tuning air temps inside the car. Coolant valve closed for for summer, open for winter or whatever is required.

 

Thanks for the quick reply and your help. Much appreciated

 

I am a newbie to this site and to Camry's. I have an `92 3.0 V6 AT and have somewhat of the same problem concerning the inside cabin heater ****. It doesn't seem to work, it is always blowing hot air regardless if it is in the recirculating setting or outside setting. When the **** is set all the way to blue or cold, it blows warm/hot air. When the **** is turned to red, it blows hot air. Can I change the temp by turning the valve stem from the picture you provided?
Thanks,
P.C.

 

Engine on, have someone rotate the cabin temp **** while you watch the coolant temp valve. The arm should rotate AND the valve it is connected to.

If not, find out why?

If valve not rotating or arm is but disconnected from valve, can rotate valve manually. Disconnect the cable first.